Hey guys, 

I know this is a really broad question, but I am looking to build a website where I can sell digital products, ie guitar courses and lessons as well as a membership/subscription service. I have created a basic weebly here https://joesguitarlessons.weebly.com/ this is obviously very amateur and not e commenced. 

I have been looking around and it is only the big players who tend to come up on the searches and maybe that is the way to go, when you start talking about taking peoples credit card details etc, like I say I don't know the answers to these questions and figured this is the place to ask the questions. Any help would be much appreciated. 

I would also like to keep it simple as I can't do coding etc, so I guess that will limit my options somewhat. So something straightforward and quick to get something up and running, would be good. 

Thanks 

 

Edited November 11, 20223 yr by Scouser
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The host doesn’t really matter.

The simplest way to do this is with Wordpress as they have a number of plugins that do most of what you want.

But building the site needs skills you may not have. In the way you expect people to pay you for your skills, pay a developer for their skills and let them build you a site.

Hey thanks,  for taking the time to get back to me. I'm guessing you don't have to be a rocket scientist to build  site these days. I built one years ago that I listed above granted it's basic, but it did what I wanted it to do. 

My understanding is that where you host your site matters in terms of what you are looking to do. For example if you are looking to sell a ton of digital products, one may be better than another, if you are looking to have paid memberships, one may be better than another etc. 

I think depending on what you want will determine if you need a pro builder ? Or are you saying it is very difficult to build a drag and drop type website, with a few digital products ? 

At what stage do you feel a pro is needed then ? 

The type of hosting is more important than the actual host.

For example, you could get some cheap hosting and end up on a shared server with thousands of other sites. This might be OK if you only plan to get a few visitors each day. But if your plan is thousands of visitors per day you may need a VPS or even a dedicated server.

Avoid hosts that offer cutprice deals for X months. You will end up with the worst type of hosting.

If you want a drag and drop site builder it's unlikely you will be able to create membership site with a store selling digital downloads.

Which is why I suggest getting help now. A professional will be able to guide as to the best site platform and from there the type of hosting you need.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond really do appreciate it. 

I think shopify can probably serve my needs at least as a start up, I will not be getting even hundreds of hits per day, let alone thousands  so, they will be nice problems to have if it ever comes to that. 

I've bought a domain which I can use there, there is a plugin/App for digital downloads and I think as a starting point it should be ok. I realise it may not be the best solution long term, but it will be far cheaper than having a designer do something and given the amount of sales I will get I can't justify overspending on it at this stage. 

Or just do it yourself. There are thousands of free Wordpress themes and a digital download plugin is a few pounds. Cheaper and far more flexible than shopify.

Fisicx thanks so much for all your advice, it really is appreciated. I was thinking of going that way but then I read quite a lot of folks really struggled with Wordpress, which put me off somewhat, I suppose because I don't want to be held up. But perhaps unlike the others folks I have had a little experience doing the drag and drop type website, so maybe I could get away with it. 

I am guessing if I were to go that way, you still need to park your site somewhere and set up credit card payments ? So with regard to UK hosting, where would you suggest I try if I were to go with the Wordpress option ? Also is there a specific plugin that is good for handling payments ? Any help would be much appreciated. As I will be selling digital products, i'm guessing it will be important to get the right hosting as I may need a fair bit of storage for selling video files which can be large. 

One thing that slightly confuses me is, do hosts have wordpress for you to use or is it completely separate. Perhaps you might know of a tutorial/explanation ?  

 

Edited November 14, 20223 yr by Scouser

Most hosts offering 'WordPress hosting' will have WordPress pre-installed, or at least it can be installed in a click from their control panel.  So it's a simple matter of just signing in, and start building your site.

One thing you might want to check with a host is their reputation for customer service, as you sound that you might need some help at times (no offence intended!). Trustpilot et al. are good for that.

Another thing is that they should be Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, and have features like two-factor authentication, web application firewalls and other hosting security features (most reputable ones do). 

Thank you Rich for taking the time to post. 

So like I said above I guess the next thing is what are some good UK hosts. This being a web developers forum, I'm guessing some folks can help me with that. 

I wouldn't mind going the wordpress route if you folks think that would be a better option than Shopify, but if there is only a few pounds difference would shopify be worth it for the ease of use/speed of getting a store up and running ? 

Shopify basic £19 

Shopify ( Best for growing business ) £49 

I am guessing that those prices cover most fees, may be a small additional fee for digital downloads  

I can't say I have experience of Shopify, but WooCommerce is completely free, so it has an advantage there... 😄

What are your thoughts/experience on shopify ? Woo Commerce ? 

Is woo commerce something I should look at, given my requirements above ? 

How does it compare to other option Wordpress and hosting ? 

Edited November 14, 20223 yr by Scouser

Shopify is ok but you are locked into their infrastructure. Which means paying money every month.

you don’t need woocommerce. There are specialist digital download plugins. The advantage of Wordpress over shopify is it’s free. Couple of pounds each month for hosting and that’s your total outlay.

Which is the best app for digital downloads ? 

I see these when I search, but it is unclear as to what pricing is as they say free but when you look closer they all seem to charge ? 

• Sky Pilot.
• FetchApp.
• Single Music.
• ShopShare.
• Digital Downloads.
• SendOwl.

This one is free and the one I suggest to clients to get started:

https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-digital-downloads/

Get some cheap hosting (just to test the waters). As @Rich C suggests most will have a one-click installer built into the package.

Choose a free theme:

https://en-gb.wordpress.org/themes/

And watch some tutorials to get the hang of how to set up a site. Or pay for some tuition. A couple of hours is usually enough to cover the basics.

Then install the digital download plugin and start adding content.

DO NOT worry about how the site looks. With WordPress you can switch themes in seconds without affecting any of you posts, pages, downloads or anything else.

Our lovely forum sponsors have free WordPress hosting which would be enough for you to test the waters. Other free WP hosting is also available 😁

So what are the advantages of paying for hosting, I have been looking at some of the UK providers and they seem very reasonable "Unlimited web hosting seems really reasonable and get top marks on Trustpilot £3.99 per month seems reasonable and the tech support is meant to be excellent, for example if you are having a problem with your web site they can help you sort out any issues. 

Quite often with free hosting you get limits on how much bandwidth or storage you can use. You may not also get full support.